


Seekers

by 00zau



Category: DARLING In The FRANXX (Anime)
Genre: F/M, Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29550837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/00zau/pseuds/00zau
Summary: Zero Two and Hiro, reborn in the distant future, must fight to find each other as an old threat re-emerges.
Relationships: Hiro | 016/Zero Two | 002
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

My earliest memories, before anything I remember of my actual life, are of my dreams.

I dreamed of a giant tree. A snowstorm.

And something red.

Despite how often I have these dreams, and how real they seem there’s something hazy about them.

Something I can’t seem to see properly.

Something missing.

…

My mom says I’m ‘rambunctious.’

That I’m always running off on my own.

She wonders why I can’t stay still, why I’m never happy staying in one place.

Everyone says the way I run around looks like I’m searching for something.

People are always asking what I’ve lost so they can help me find it.

I wish I knew, too.

…

We visited a museum as a field trip a few days ago.

There are four huge statues out front.

The signs say they used to be able to move.

That night, in my dreams, there were five of them.

…

I think what I’m looking for is a person.

I’m sure that I’m looking for something now.

Even in my dreams, I’m wandering alone, looking for it.

But in my dreams, I’m not looking at things.

I’m just looking at people’s faces.

Except in my dreams, there’s nothing there.

Whenever I have that dream, I see blank, featureless faces on everyone, but I always wake up seeing green eyes, just like my own.

…

I think what’s missing in my dream is a person.

It’s what I can’t remember right, the red thing under the snowy tree.

Sometimes I’m chasing it, sometimes I’m leading it, sometimes we both just sit there.

But when I wake up, I can’t recall anything else about them.

…

My mom goes walking with me a lot.

I think she does it to let me search for what, or who, I’m looking for.

We go all over the place, and she lets me decide where most of the time.

I don’t know if it’s helping, because most of the time I don’t feel like I’m any closer no matter what direction we go.

…

I found a picture book at a store. It was simply made, but the artwork was beautiful.

The story seems unfinished. The end has different art than the rest and no words, and the last pages are blank other than a sketch that I think is of one of the characters.

Even so, it reminds me of my dream somehow. I’ve been reading it over and over.

…

I think something has changed, like the person I’m searching for is clearer now.

My mom says we end up going in the same direction most of the time now.

That just makes me want to go out even more, though.

…

There’s a tree in the center of the city, near the museum with the big statues.

It’s so big, it feels like the center of the world.

It’s not the one from my dream though.

Even so, when I sit under it I get this feeling like things are falling into place.

My dreams have trees like this one in them now, too, only smaller.

The red person isn’t always red anymore, either.

…

There was no school today, so we went on a really long walk, much further than we’d gone before. Even I was tired by the end of it.

But before we turned back, I saw something even further into the city; a massive tree covered in flowers the same color as my hair.

I told my mom I want to go there next time.

I feel like what I’m searching for is closer than ever before.

…

I brought the book to the tree today. 

It feels like I was acting out a scene from my dream, and it made things clearer than ever before.

That person in my dream was a girl.

Even though she wasn’t the same in every dream, I know it was the same girl, always the same age as I was in a given dream.

…

We finally got to see the tree! It’s huge, with a trunk that seems to take up half the block. I want to see what’s on the other side.

It feels like it’s so close I can touch it.

…

A girl came darting around the base of the tree as I sat trying to recall my dream. She tripped on a tree root, breaking me out of my thoughts and

…

I tripped as I came around the tree, as I fell, something caught my eye. I turned as soon as I stopped falling, and

…

Everything clicked into place at last. I saw her face, and she was the girl from my dream. Not exactly the same, there was something that the girl in the dreams had that she doesn’t, but I knew it was her anyway.

…

There was a boy sitting under the tree. Looking at me right as I fell, I saw his eyes. Green. The same green as mine.

…

Time stood still for an instant as we gazed at each other. I asked her what her name was, at the same instant she asked for mine. It felt like I was in one of my dreams again. We just sat there and talked until her mom took her home. I don’t even remember what we talked about, I just remember her. My dreams that night weren’t hazy at all. I know exactly what was missing from them now.

Her.

…

We talked and talked until my mom had to nearly drag me home. She said she’d never seen get along with another kid like that. I made her promise to take me back to the tree again. I’ve found what I was searching for.

Him.

…

I go back to the tree every couple of days. I haven’t seen the girl again so far, but I know it’s only a matter of time until I meet her again. I can feel it. I don’t know what this all means, but I know that everything made sense finally when I was with her.

…

I haven’t seen him again, even though we go back to the tree whenever we can make the time. I’m not worried though. I’ve found him once, I’m sure I’ll find him again. Now that I know what I was looking for, it’ll only be easier.

Author’s Notes:

Reposted from fanfiction.net, as will be all other extant chapters.

This 'prologue' was meant to be readable as a one-shot, and is pretty different from the rest of the work. Fair warning both ways.


	2. Chapter 2

Two teenagers sat in a waiting room. The boy’s shaggy black hair concealed his eyes as he gazed at the clock on his PDA. Only a few more minutes until the treatment.

The girl sitting anxiously next to him, spurred on by his small movement, finally turned to face him, asking merely “Why?”

“Why what?” was the monotone response.

“Why do you keep doing this to yourself, Hiro? They’re breaking you. And for what? Why do you let them keep hurting you, just so you can pilot?”

“Because I need to… be here. On the carrier.”

“What’s so important to you about being here? Please. Watching you do this to yourself hurts. We’d miss you, but I’m sure they’ll find more pilots. We’re worried about you.” I’m worried about you.

Hiro finally showed some vestige of emotion. His face clouded as he concentrated his thoughts. “I… I don’t know either”, he concluded, but then resolve flashed on his face. “It doesn’t matter. I know it’s something important. I will stay here, whatever it takes. Please, Cho, just leave it at that. Okay?”

Cho seemed ready to argue the point further, but a door opened and the familiar face of a doctor came through. “Hiro, they’re ready for you,” she stated, and Hiro quickly stood and marched toward the door. The doctor didn’t hurry to follow. Seeing that, once again, Cho had come along as well, she sighed slightly and sat in the seat that Hiro had just vacated.

“You need to quit beating yourself up over Hiro, Cho.”

“Doctor Sara, why is Hiro still in the duo piloting program? Really. Doing this is killing him.” Cho’s eyes were starting to tear up, the meager façade she’d kept up in front of Hiro crumbling. “What benefit is there in keeping him here?”

“We’ve been over this before, Cho,” Sara replied wearily, “Hiro has the highest sync potential we’ve ever measured. We know the VIRM weren’t fully defeated, and we need to be ready for them.”

“Yeah, that’s what the Bifrost was built for, I know. But where does Hiro factor into all that?”

“The Doppelsoldners are going to be critical to any fighting, and we don’t have enough pilots for them. Hiro could be the best pilot, if we can keep him synced with anyone long enough. And studying him while we do could help us increase others scores, as well. Hiro could be a key factor in winning the war we’re facing. I know it seems cruel, but needs must when the devil dances”.

With that, she stood to leave, but Cho tried one last approach. “What happened to this being an ‘all volunteer’ force?” she asked plaintively, tears beginning to flow freely now.

Before going through the door, Sara turned back and shot a meaningful look to Cho.

“I think you already know the answer to that one, too” was all she said before the door closed behind her.

…

I once knew where my life was headed. I’d finally found what I was looking for. But now…

-System timing out-

-Einherjar shutting down-

-Pilot-system integration below activation level-

The pilot blinked against the light and disorientation as the testbed cracked open and their mind was booted back into their own body instead of the simulated robot body they had been trying to connect to.

That same pilot now stood outside, looking at a slip of paper.

“Due to low synchronization aptitude, the SDF does not require your service. Thank you.”

“Does not require your service.”

The paper crumpled and the former pilot’s fist shook.

Zero Two slammed her empty fist into the wall, and hot, angry tears rolled off her face.

…

As soon as she arrived back at her family’s apartment, she turned the TV on to a random station and turned up the volume until it was nearly painful. When she subsequently dove onto the couch and screamed into the pillow for all she was worth, the TV succeeded in covering the noise.

Eventually her voice grew hoarse, and her eyes painfully dry, and she fell into an exhausted sleep after wearing herself out, attempting to fall out of the real world. For what felt like the first time in ages, she dreamt.

A jumble of images assailed her. They felt like fragments of memories, yet were nothing like anything she’d ever experienced. Eventually the whirl slowed down, and she found herself watching a true memory, something she had seen before. One of her most cherished memories, but now her torment.

The boy seemed on the verge of crying, but also happy. They hadn’t seen each other as often as they’d hoped, but they still managed to see one another regularly. But now that was about to end. He’d taken some kind of test, that said he could pilot a mecha on the jump carrier under construction in orbit. They were taking him away. Away from her!

But Hiro didn’t seem as worried. He smiled, full of fragile confidence. “Don’t cry, Zero Two! We’ll see each other again, I know it. I’ll be waiting for you, on the Bifrost!”

Zero Two woke back up, but her eyes stayed closed. It hurt. Ever since he’d gone, she’d known that she just had to follow him to the stars and they’d be reunited. But now that dream was dashed. She hadn’t made it into the pilot program, and wasn’t going to the carrier. An old nervous habit manifested itself as she started chewing on her nails again, a seething mixture of anxiety, frustration, and anger.

Eventually, the front door opened and her mother swooped in, smothering her in sympathy and a warm embrace. “Aw, baby, I heard what happened. I know getting into the program was really important to you…”

Her older sister, in her own way, showed sympathy by trying to avoid the subject. She slunk into the room behind their mother, and faux-casually dropped herself onto the couch (and onto Zero Two’s feet). Picking up and toying with the remote, she asked, “Hey, ‘Two, watcha watching? Didn’t think you were into documentaries.”

Zero Two’s attention was drawn to the TV, as well. She’d chosen something random, avoiding anything she might have actually wanted to watch under normal circumstances. It appeared to be a pseudo-documentary, questioning the origins of a certain desert. “…so its location should make it a fertile land. Despite this, and for no reason scientists have yet been able to determine, almost nothing grows here. Even compared to other deserts, the Howling Desert is virtually lifeless.”

Zero Two’s sister and mother continued to try to distract and comfort her, but she was barely paying attention. Her eyes had locked onto one of the shots of the desert in the show. A matching image behind her eyes was re-igniting another old feeling.

Wanderlust.

…

Cho had finally calmed down. There were no more tears, though her eyes remained somewhat red. She managed to project a smile, though obviously fake, when Hiro finally came back out. Hiro had an even more blank expression on his face than he had before his ‘treatment’, though his face turned to puzzlement at seeing the obvious signs of Cho’s emotional state.

“Where you crying, Cho? Is something wrong?”

Cho had to clamp down on her emotions even harder not to burst into tears again. “It’s… It’s nothing. Let’s just go back to the provisional pilot barracks.” She reached for his hand, hesitated, and grabbed his forearm and started to drag him away, conveniently concealing her face from his.

…

Zero Two only looked back over her shoulder once at her home of 16 years. She loved her family, but she still had to leave. She hadn’t told them that she was going, let alone where, because they would have tried to stop her, and it would have been too easy to let them. That was also why she only allowed herself one look. Leaving was harder than she’d thought it would be.

The lie she’d left in a note on the kitchen table would probably buy her the rest of the day; she’d have to be out of town before anyone realized she wasn’t coming back. They’d know she’d run left when they realized what she’d taken with her.

Zero Two adjusted the straps of her backpack, containing a few essentials and prized possessions. A simple metal pendant hung from a chain around her neck; her personal good luck charm from childhood. Pulling her hat down to hide her eyes, and reduce the temptation to look back again, she briefly touched her pendant and set off. Despite the setback she had encountered the day before, she felt more confident, more sure that she was on the path that would lead her to Hiro, than she had in years.

…

Author’s Notes

Reposted from fanfiction.net


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey Hiro, don’t you remember? You owe me $5!” Most of Delta (Provisional) squadron’s members crowded around Hiro when he and Cho entered the cafeteria, and the taller of the two red-haired teens had, after the normal greetings were out of the way, led off with what should have been an obvious lie.

Hiro, however, slowly started reaching for one of his pockets, but Cho gentled him with a stiff hand, then turned her stern gaze upon the faintly grinning teen. “He doesn’t owe you anything, Cein. Stop trying to take advantage of him.”

Cein’s grin wilted, but he responded defensively “It was just a joke. Don’t be such a spoilsport.”

Cho quickly asserted, “It’s not funny, it’s just mean.” Both turned toward their audience for support at almost the same time.

Cho found support sorely lacking. The still slightly smirking Kato was Cein’s twin and longtime co-conspirator, so it was obvious whose side he was on. Misha at least made an attempt to look stern in mirror to Cho, but she was clearly failing to hide her own amusement. Song, from her usual position in the back of the group, shrank back even further now, hiding behind dark bangs. The last member of their small squad, Chad, hadn’t even gotten up to greet Hiro. His cool gaze could be felt, and he’d acknowledged Hiro with a nod, but he’d obviously be no support to the conflict. At least Cein wasn’t getting much support, either.

Giving up on the ongoing power struggle for the moment, Cho huffed and once again grabbed Hiro’s wrist and pulled him to the kitchen area. Being in the much smaller Delta Squadron had its advantages and disadvantages; the other three squadrons had to deal with somewhat bland mass-produced food, but could get hot food pretty much on demand. Delta had much better options… so long as they prepared it themselves. However, in situations like their current one, they were stuck with cold or reheated food. Cho assembled a couple of sandwiches with minimal assistance from Hiro, then sat across from him at one of the tables, well away from the others. Their cafeteria was the same size as the Einherjar squad’s, so a mere seven pilots didn’t even come close to filling the place.

Hiro remained even quieter than his usual self, mechanically eating his sandwich. Cho gazed at Hiro, trying to guess what was going on behind his eyes. He was always faintly enigmatic at the best of times. He’d been in Delta squad before anyone else. Sara’s confirmation of Hiro’s piloting potential lent strength to the long-running rumor that the squadron had basically been formed, wholly or partially, as a way to keep Hiro around, but out of the line units, while they tried to figure out what to do about him.

On top of predating everyone else in the squad, his background remained a mystery despite how long they’d been there, he rarely spoke about his past. Cho and the others knew, of course, that his ‘treatments’ probably contributed to his unwillingness, or potentially inability, to talk about his past.

“Hey, dreamboat, whatcha’ thinking about?”

Cho jumped. Misha had slid into a seat next to her, and had caught her staring at Hiro. Then she blushed and stammered out some bland excuse, which probably merely confirmed Misha’s suspicions. Despite that, the spell was broken. Misha drew her into some other meaningless conversation. Hiro seemed to recover some of his vitality as well, after eating… and used it to leave the common area and go to his room. Both Cho and Misha followed him with their eyes as he left.

Misha sighed and sunk her chin into her hands. “He is pretty cute, isn’t he? I guess ‘dark and mysterious’ is your type, huh, Cho?”

Cho blushed furiously once again. “N-no.”

“Oh, so you wouldn’t mind if I made a move, then?” Misha smirked evilly.

“What?! Don’t you dare!” Cho’s blush transformed into a flush of anger.

Misha just laughed and waved her hand apologetically. “I was just kidding, Cho.” Her face turned slightly serious, though her eyes were still bright, and she continued, “But you aren’t the only one who likes the brooding type.” She held up a hand to forestall Cho’s protest. “Let me finish. I’m just saying, you need to lay claim before someone else does. Not all the girls on this ship are as nice as I am, and we don’t have many friends outside our little squad who are going to stay back just for _you.”_

Cho sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

…

Visiting the desert in person brought its strangeness into crystal clarity. It was neither the sunbaked, hot and dry desert, nor frigid tundra. The air was somewhat dry, but it was otherwise very moderate in temperature. Which only made the total lack of life all the stranger; it seemed like the land should have been fertile.

It’d been three days since Zero Two had set out. Bus and train fares had eaten into her meager funds, and her clothes felt slightly clammy; she’d only had room to bring one change of clothes, so both sets of clothes had been worn for more than a day each, and had spent the rest of that time stuffed into a bag. Having slept in her seat wasn’t doing wonders for her, either.

Things were about to get dangerous for her, though. This was the end of civilization, as far as her trip was concerned. A small rest stop along a highway crossing through part of the desert. It was the closest she could get to the time-worn crater that she’d seen.

The shopkeeper had looked at her strangely when she didn’t re-board the bus before it left. When she proceeded to buy energy bars and water and started to walk away from the road, he’d run out of his store and tried to stop her, worried for her safety or sanity. She didn’t think she’d fully convinced him, but she’d managed to set off nonetheless.

…

The pilots filed into the briefing room to get the days orders. Like the cafeteria, it was much larger than needed for the seven of them. They each headed for their preferred seats. Shortly after they settled in, a separate door in front of the pilot’s seating opened and a man walked through. Unlike all the pilots, he was obviously an adult, and he looked far more proper in uniform than they; with his stern look and close-cropped hair, the teens before him looked like they were playing dress up in comparison.

The illusion was only enforced when the children waved at him, and Misha called out, “’Morning, Captain Septimus. What’re we doing today?”

Septimus’s face turned even more stony at this informality, but he replied anyway, “You will follow the standard training schedule today. You will be using Beta Squadron’s backup Einherjar today, since they’re at full readiness right now; we won’t be interrupting their operations like we would with Alpha or Gamma.”

Misha pouted slightly, and Cein and Kato moaned and chorused, “aww, when are we gonna get to test the Doppelsoldners again?”

Septimus relented slightly and revealed, “We’re planning to run more compatibility tests with the Doppelsoldners tomorrow. We’ve got all four of our complement onboard now, though we haven’t found any new pilot candidates recently. Don’t too excited, though; tomorrows plans are not set in stone.”

Even Cho had to restrain her enthusiasm at this announcement. Piloting the single-seat Einherjar mechas was enjoyable enough, but the entire reason that the teenage pilots where on the _Bifrost_ at all was because they showed the capability to pilot the two-seater Doppelsoldner mechas. For as-yet-unknown reasons, only pilots born after a certain date showed the capability to synchronize with another human as well as the larger mechs. The energy burst denoting the last battle against the VIRM was suspected to have something to do with it.

While they had yet to run into any VIRM, or other starfaring opponents, for that matter, preliminary doctrine called for the Doppelsoldner units to be the core of offensive operations.

…

Delta squadron split up for the male and female changing rooms, removing their normal uniforms and donning the pilot suits. And air- and skin-tight suit was put on first. This would provide protection against the vacuum of space. To allow them to move in a vacuum, they stepped into stalls where a powered exoskeleton was attached. Hard belts were built into the wrists, ankles, hips and shoulders of the suit, and the machinery in the stalls connected those hard-points with a flexible chain of powered reinforcements along the spine and outside of each limb.

While dressing, of course, the modicum of formality they held in front of Septimus was absent. Kato and Cein got in a rat-tail fight with their towels, and only a stern gaze from Chad kept them from attempting to drag him into it as well. They left Hiro alone as well, still slightly repentant after Cho’s scolding the day before. In short order the teens trooped back out of their respective locker rooms. They formed into two parallel lines as they walked toward the lift to the other side of the ship, where Beta squadron’s hangers were located. They sat in the subway-like lift car as it travelled around the carriers disk-shaped hull in the same order, drawing attention to the hole in their group. Four Doppelsoldners meant there needed to be eight pilots, but one had yet to be found. Time was running out, as well; well-worn rumor was that the _Bifrost_ would be leaving the solar system within a few months.

…

Zero Two stumbled as the ground shook. She'd already stumbled several times, but she'd put it down to exhaustion the first few times. She'd been walking for a day and a half, and only had one bottle of water left. Getting back to civilization was going to be dicey. After the first couple of times, she'd thought she noticed a faint rumble. This time, however, it was obvious. Rocks groaned, and all she could do was spread her feet and brace as first smaller, then larger rocks slid down the slope toward the center of the crater.

The first flash of real fear crossed Zero Two's mind. She sorely hoped that the volcanic crater wasn't about to become an active volcano again, with her in the center. Then, the shaking finally stopped, with an odd sense of finality. Looking around to assure herself that the earthquake, if that's what it was, was over, she saw something else. A yawning maw had opened up in the side of the crater, near the bottom. And near her. The rocks sliding around should have covered up any caves, not revealed them which, combined with the angularity of the entrance, told her that this 'cave' opening up before her was no accident of nature.

Zero Two pulled a flashlight out of her bag, touched the pendant on her chest, and walked toward the cave entrance.

...

Entering the cave confirmed that it wasn't a cave at all, but only raised more questions in Zero Two's mind. While it obviously wasn't natural, neither did it appear to be man-made. A tunnel descended downward, and her meager flashlight was swallowed before reaching the bottom. The walls were too regular to be natural, but the marks on the walls looked more like claw marks than tool marks, as though this was the lair of some massive creature. Just to make things stranger, there was an obviously manufactured platform, complete with a handrail at the end of the level part of the tunnel, before the shallow slope.

Stepping onto the platform to try and see down the shaft, Zero Two started slightly at another rumble. Instead of another earthquake, and risk of a deadly cave-in, though, this time the source was the platform beginning to slowly descend the shaft. Exhausted mentally and physically, Zero Two sat down on the platform and leaned back against her bag.

...

Delta squad took a moment to admire the awe-inspiring view of the Beta squadron hangar when the arrived. Delta's home hangar was imposing in its own way with the sheer size of the four Doppelsoldners housed within its solemn depths, but the 36 Einherjar in ranks along both walls of hanger, and the smooth efficiency with which they were constantly coming and going had an impact all its own.

A color-coded light lead them to the mechas they were assigned for the day. As usual, they were at the far end of the hangar, furthest from the gateway to open space. The pilots split up and entered the enclosed catwalks leading to the hatches of their respective craft. Once they were situated, they hooked into their restraints, attached the interface devices to their suits, and started their activation sequences.

_-Einherjar systems online-_

_-Synchronizing pilot-system interface-_

_-Releasing hardware locks. Fly safe-_

With that the Einherjar were online, free to move to their pilots wills. They remained attached to their cradles though, and a countdown appeared in each pilot’s field of view. The launch queues counted down by one each time another Einherjar left the hangar, until it was finally Delta's turn. As each of them reached zero in turn, they pressed the button releasing the locks holding them to the ship and carefully maneuvered out of the bay. Aware of the dangers present around so many moving craft, the teenagers attempted to maintain the same air of cool professionalism that their hosts kept.

Chad, as usual, provided the best imitation. He'd been in training as an Einherjar pilot before he'd been selected for the Doppelsoldner program and still had closer ties to some of his companions in the other squadrons than to the rest of Delta.

Cho and Song both piloted cleanly enough, but Song's timidity showed through in that she gave wider berth than regulation required to all obstacles, though her deft piloting made it clear her caution was little needed.. Hiro as well was plainly competent though unspectacular.

The other three appeared borderline jittery as they exited the hangar. Staying below the speed limit in the bay, and in the safe lanes, was obviously a challenge, not due to a lack of competence so much as a desire to drive to the limits of their craft. As soon as they cleared the hangars confines, Cein and Kato goosed their thrusters to maximum for a moment, catching up to the others faster than was strictly necessary.

Once they'd shaken down into formation, looser for some than for others, Septimus radioed them with their training plan for the day. As they split their group in half as well as they could, given their odd numbers, Cho commed Hiro. "Uh, hey. You seemed a little spaced out this morning. You up for this?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking. I had an odd dream last night."

Cho, interest piqued, pushed further. "Oh, a dream? What about? We've been training so much I've been dreaming about flying." She laughed a bit at the end of her own statement.

Hiro chuckled and replied, "Nothing like that. It wasn't anything I'd seen before... I think." He paused to concentrate his thoughts. "All I saw was a cave, and a girl. I felt like I'd seen her before, but it was... hazy, like I couldn't remember something."

Cho’s knuckled turned white as she gripped the contols, but before she could pry further, Chad broke in with a message for the whole squadron, "We're approaching our designated starting point. Go to radio silence once the excersize starts."

...

Zero Two opened her eyes. It seemed she'd fallen into a nap while the elevator descended. She had no idea how long she'd been laying there, or how far down the platform had gone. The air felt heavy and mist seemed to swallow her flashlight's beam even faster than the darkness at the top of the tunnel had.

Despite this, her intuition seemed to grow to the strongest pitch she'd ever felt, with one possible exception, and she slowly walked forward. As she progressed, a faint glow seemed to emanate from the mist. Eventually she turned her light off; between the ambient light and the mist swallowing the beam, it wasn't doing anything, and she wanted to conserve the batteries. The tunnel began to open into a large chamber, and Zero Two could once again tell she had reached the end of her journey.

Again she heard a rumble, and again it was a different type. It was slow and cyclic. Her pace slowed even further at a flash of recognition. It sounded like the breathing of some creature, but so low and slow that it must be of unimaginable size.

Reaching the center of the chamber, she stopped and turned in place. Despite the mist that seemed to cover the rest of the cavern, she could clearly see the walls now. The regular pattern proved that the walls were not natural, but her train of thought crashed to a halt as one of what could only be scales moved, revealing an enormous cerulean eye, locked onto her.

Without a sound, a voice fit to make mountains tremble echoes inside her mind.

_"What is your desire, little one?"_

...

Author's notes: Reposted from fanfiction.net


	4. Chapter 4

A blue orb hung faintly in Hiro’s vision as he blinked himself awake, as thought he’d been staring at a bright light. Checking his clock, he saw that it was nearly time to get up anyway, so he dragged himself out of bed and cancelled the alarm before it went off. Still reflecting on this latest dream, he nearly ran into Cho as he entered the hallway, heading toward the kitchen to help make breakfast.

They bounced off each other and pushed against the wall to steady themselves. Cho laughed lightly. “Wow, odd to see you up early, huh?”

Hiro shrugged noncommittally. Cho tried to spark his interest again, “You heading to help with breakfast, too?”

This at least got a verbal response, but little more. “Yeah.”

Cho sighed slightly and followed him to the kitchen.

…

“As I mentioned yesterday, we’re scheduled to run Doppelsoldner tests today. Those plans have been confirmed.” Septimus managed not to visibly cringe at the cheering this deadpan announcement elicited.

The teenagers filed out of the briefing room with more alacrity than they had displayed the day before. Even the usual horseplay in the locker rooms was at a minimum, as they promptly headed back out. Since they didn’t have an eighth member yet, the piloting pairs were still in flux, but the first round of tests were usually left up to the pilots. Cho quickly claimed Hiro, of course, and the twins locked high fived excitedly before rushing off to claim one of the behemoths for their testing. Chad sighed resignedly as Song quietly moved into orbit behind him. Almost in spite of his expertise with the Einherjar, his ability to synchronize with his fellow pilots remained the lowest within the squads. Song was on the low end of the squad as well, and the fact that they were consistently paired together was likely not helping their scores.

This obviously left Misha as the odd man out, but she smiled and waved Cho ahead; the squad took turns on sitting out the first round, so she’d known it was her turn before the day had even started.

Cho and Hiro settled into the cockpit of the as yet unnamed Doppelsoldner. Once permanent pilot assignments were made, the pairs would be allowed to name their units. Unlike the cockpit of the Einherjar, which was tightly built around the single pilot’s seat, the Doppelsoldner’s cockpit was far more open. It had to be, to incorporate controls and displays visible to both pilots. The pilots’ seats were next to each other, with a single extended console centered between them.

Hiro and Cho settled into their seats as the hatch closed them off from the outside world. Cho was as focused as Hiro for once, not attempting any small talk. They both grasped onto the central control yoke with one hand, with Cho studiously avoiding their hands touching. They then engaged the robot’s startup sequence with their other hand, and closed their eyes.

_-Doppelsoldner systems online-_

_-Synchronizing pilot- to-pilot interface-_

_-Stabilizing at 73/27-_

Cho winced slightly as Hiro’s presence invaded her mind. He was by far the strongest emitter on the team, which was both a strength and his greatest weakness as a Doppelsoldner pilot. 25% was the minimum ratio to be able to remain conscious for the synchronization with the robot itself, and Hiro unconsciously pushed hard enough to put his partners near that borderline.

_-Synchronizing pilot-system interface.-_

_-Stabilizing at 64%-_

On the other hand, that same power meant that he and his partner would achieve a higher responsiveness from their vehicle, as well.

Calling up a display, the other pairings numbers were shown compared to theirs for Cho to review. The twins were as usual close to an optimal 50/50 with each other, but as a pair they seemed to have some difficulty pushing the envelope with the mecha itself, hovering around a 50% there as well. Chad and Song seemed to have the worst of both worlds; they’d managed a pilot imbalance nearly as bad as Hiro’s, but without the high system synch to make up for it.

Unlike with the Einherjar, the larger mechs remained locked down. The pilot connections remained tenuous at best, and having an active mech of that size shut down could be dangerous to the pilots themselves and to the carrier, and recovering them was no simple task, either. That had advantages of its own, however, as the first simulation replaced the static view of the inside of the hangar. Simulations could create far more involved encounters than physical exercises, and the Doppelsoldners could handle much more exciting and innovative virtual battles.

In short order, though, the first round was finished and the partner selections began again. Chad elected to sit out the next round, and, after Cho gave her a warning glare, Misha paired up with Kato and Cho with Cein, leaving Song and Hiro as the last pair. Chad pulled out his PDA and pulled up a technical manual for one of the mechas, yet again searching for a system-based solution while he waited.

…

_"What is your desire, little one?"_

Zero Two stumbled back a step, then squared her shoulders and asked, “who… what are you?”

_“What is your desire?”_

The voice was insistent, and a dull ache began to build behind Zero Two’s eyes. Looking around, was it just her imagination, or had the walls of the cavern grown closer? For the first time she could remember, a note of fear crept into her voice, “W-why do you want to know?

_What is your desire?”_

Clearly, the creature would not answer her own questions. The pulsing in her head grew stronger, making it hard to think. Maybe if she answered, it would answer her questions, too?

“I… I want to see him again. See Hiro again.”

_“What is your desire?”_

She could feel a change in the voice. It had recognized her answer. Then why was it still asking the same question? The headache became blinding. She needed to answer again. Properly. Her first answer had lacked something.

This time, she cried out clearly, “I want to be with Hiro!”

_“What do you require?”_

A brief surge of relief went through her when the creature’s question changed. Her response had worked. The ache subsided slightly as well. She was compelled to continue. “I need to get onto the carrier.”

That wasn’t what it wanted. The pressure in her head began to ratchet up again, and Zero Two bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. “I have to get back into the Doppelsoldner program?”

She could feel that that one was almost right, but the pain grew on.

“I need to be able to pilot!”

Zero Two collapsed with a gasp as the pain vanished. Her vision cleared as well, and she could now be certain that the walls had indeed closed in on her. She could feel a massive, eternally slow heartbeat through the floor. It felt as though the creature’s thoughts where her own, and she answered its next question before it could finish echoing through her mind, _“What…”_

“Anything.”

_“…will…”_

“Anything!”

_“…you…”_

“I’ll give up anything!” Zero Two found herself on her feet again, shrieking.

That seemed to satisfy it, and it asked what she knew was the final question.

_“Even your self?”_

Her voice sounded hoarse after shouting at the top of her lungs, but there was no hint of hesitation as she rasped out a, “Yes.”

She coughed once, her voice spent. Then she felt an impact, and she coughed again, and blood spurted from her mouth. A long blue spike protruded from her chest, reaching from a gap in the wall of scales.

…

Hiro jerked upright in his bunk, shouting in distress. Coming to his senses, he looked at his outstretched hand, which had been reaching for something even in his sleep. Cold sweat covered his body, but a haze seemed to cover his mind as soon as he tried to grasp at the fading dream. All he could remember was the girl, collapsing in a boneless heap. He had scrambled out of bed and stepped into the hall before reality caught up to him. Even if this was more than a dream, there was nothing he could do. He was on a carrier in earth orbit, unable to leave. Even if he could, he didn’t know where she was.

He didn’t even know who she was. So why was he dreaming about her? Why did his chest feel tight seeing her in danger?

“Are you okay? Did you have another dream?” Cho appeared around the corner, hair still mussed from sleep.

Hiro blinked, jerked out of his own thoughts. Cho frowned slightly when she saw his hand drop from where it had been on his chest.

“I’m fine. Just a dream again.”

“You’ve been having those more lately. Was… was it about that girl again?” The look on Hiro’s face was all Cho needed for an answer, and her fists clenched by her side.

“Do you know who she is? Someone you knew back home?

A strange expression crossed Hiro’s face, somewhat a frown, before he hesitantly responded, “Yeah, I think so.”

“You _think_ so? How can you not…” Cho choked on the last of her words as Hiro looked at her levelly.

Turning to return to her own room, she gave a forcedly causual-looking wave, and told Hiro, “Try not to wake me up again, okay?” before accelerating as soon as she was out of sight.

…

While it still elicited some cheers, the excitement of doing Doppelsoldner drills for the second day in a row was not as high.

After exiting the lockers, they quickly paired off once again. It was Hiro’s turn to sit out the first round, so Cho once again found herself paired with Cein, Misha with Kato, and Chad once again found himself paired with Song without her seeming to make her will known at all. Things proceeded smoothly through the first set of exercises, and Cho tried not to think about how Hiro’s absence was a likely contributor to that.

The reunion for the second round involved the usual jockeying for partners. With Kato sitting out, Misha once again grinned evilly before moving toward Hiro, giving joking gesture when a glaring Cho beat her to the punch.

Hiro and Cho settled into the cockpit again, and Cho gave him a smile. “Let’s see if we can beat yesterday’s numbers, okay?”

Hiro seemed lost in thought, barely acknowledging her comments, so she asked, “Still thinking about that dream, huh?”

Hiro smiled sheepishly and responded with “Yeah, a little. Guess I should focus on the task at hand, right?” before quickly buckling himself in and beginning the startup proceedured.

_-Doppelsoldner systems online-_

_-Synchronizing pilot- to-pilot interface-_

The graphic showing their synchronization fluctuated wildly, then began to settle. But as it did, it suddenly changed to a lurid red color

_-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold-_

Cho bit her lip and tightened her grip on the controls, trying for will herself toward Hiro’s consciousness, towards a usable ratio.

_-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold-_

No good. After the third time the computer repeated its warning, they were required to abort, and Cho gave a frustrated sigh and flipped the kill switch.

_-Synchronization aborted, Doppelsoldner systems shutting down.-_

Septimus instructed the other two pilots to proceed with the training exercise as the two exited the robot mere minutes after entering.

Hiro bowed his head slightly. “Sorry for messing things up again.”

Cho sighed and patted his shoulder, replying, “No, it’s fine. I was just hoping things would stay better after your last treatment, for once.”

Hiro leaned against a wall, hanging his head. “Yeah, me too. I guess I need to talk to Doctor Sara again.”

Cho started to speak again, but then stopped, deciding instead to just lean against the wall next to him.

…

Zero Two’s eyes opened again, which was odd. Hadn’t she just died? Looking down, the spike that had impaled her was gone, but her shirt was ripped. So it hadn’t been a dream. There was also a dull ache coming from her chest, and she felt between her breasts, and froze. Sitting up and pulling up her shirt, she stared at the angry red boil the size of an outstretched hand. It pulsed like a second heart, and bulging veins seemed to be spreading from it, along her skin, before her eyes. She looked around in a panic, only to find herself staring into the same massive eye. Pain stabbed through her as she stood up and faced it. “What did you do to me?”

A different voice spoke within her mind this time, with no component that she could physically hear. It sounded like a young girl, but she felt motherly warmth within it as well, and the power behind it dwarfed that of the mountain-deep voice from before.

_“I have restored you, child.”_

“W-what?” Zero Two felt like she was about to break down. This was no time for riddles.

Images appeared in her mind. A glimpse of a woman, possibly the speaker, came first. Though she had white hair and dusk-colored skin, her slight build was very similar to Zero Two’s own mother. Then she saw herself, but different. The apparition was wearing a uniform that she’d never seen before, and as she watched, the image pulled off the cap it had been wearing, revealing two red horns.

_“You were fractured. Incomplete. A part of you was missing when you returned.”_

“Returned? From where?”

_“Tell me, child, do you know why you seek him?”_

This was something Zero Two had considered before, but she had never found a satisfactory answer. Seeming to read her mind, the voice sounded again, _“You could not know. Your memories remain fragmented. I cannot restore them for you, you must reclaim them. Then your synthesis will reach its end.”_

Zero Two began to ask another question, but broke off at another flood of images. The strange girl, or maybe just her, and a boy just like Hiro. Together, as she was not with Hiro. As each scene flashed by, they seemed more and more familiar. When she saw them piloting some strange mecha together, she understood what the beast had been looking for in questioning her.

“So that girl, it’s me. But how?” The kaleidoscope of images mad it hard to focus on a single one, and more questions came as one fragmented image after another sparked them, “and what are you? I just saw you… die?”

_“I am but a fragment of her, an echo left behind to steward the last of her power. I felt my child’s soul split from her body, piloting the great weapon, and so I held on, refusing to fade so that I could be a beacon for their souls.”_

“So, I’m…” Zero Two trailed off.

_“Correct. But you are fully human, and she was not. I have given you the last vestige of my essence. Knowing the VIRM where not stuck a fatal blow, I waited, to spend the last of my power in fighting them. Now I give it to you, to take the battle to them once more.”_

“Why?”

_“Twice, the two of you have defied fate. The VIRM are virtually unstoppable, and you must defy it once more.”_

Zero Two started to nod, but the voice continued.

_“But you are not yet ready. I ask again, why do you seek him?”_

That question again. “Because he is important to me.”

_“And why is that? A boy you barely know, years ago. There is no reason the you standing before me would remain so attached. And yet you do. Look deeper. What is Hiro to you?”_

Zero Two looked down at her own hands, then recoiled. The tendrils spreading from her chest had reached her wrists, and sweat, unnoticed until now, dripped from her face and hands. Whatever gift had been given to her, it seemed like it was as likely to kill her as help her.

Despite her sweat, an icy calm settled over Zero Two. She closed her eyes, searching for the intuition that had led her there that day. That had led her to Hiro in the first place, all those years ago. Then, without opening her eyes, she found herself face to face with… herself. The horned girl she’d whose life had just been shared with her. Was it this girl that had been pulling her forward all these years? The girl smiled, and so did she, a perfect mirror of each other.

A third voice spoke in Zero Two’s mind, and this time it was utterly familiar. She opened her eyes, and they flashed as though to light up the dark cavern. The angry red lines across her body faded even more quickly than they’d appeared, and the second pulsing she felt on her chest faded, or perhaps matched to her own heartbeat. She looked down again to see that her chest had returned to its original state, without even a scar to show where she’d been impaled.

Looking back up, the apparition of the last Klaxosaur smiled at her, and she smiled back. She’d found her answer, and the voice within her sang out in concert as she shouted, “He is my Darling!”

…

Zero Two felt slightly melancholy as she rode the platform back up to the surface. After her declaration, the Klaxosaur’s remnant had congratulated her, and then crumbled. It felt as though she’d lost something, even though she’d only spent a short time there. She was sure, though, that with this pilgrimage she’d gained… something, too. Something that would carry her where she needed to go.

Reaching the entrance to the cave, she stood in stunned silence for a moment. Despite the time, according to her PDA, it was quite dark outside. Massive thunderclouds had rolled in, despite the supposed desert conditions. A light rain had already started, and it quickly escalated into a heavy downpour. A sudden urge overcame her, and she dropped her bag in the cave entrance, and leapt from the cave, letting the clean rain wash the sweat and stress away.

…

Zero Two’s return trip was much shorter than the trip out, because she wasn’t returning to the same place. Her goal was only to reach the nearest city, rather than returning all the way home. She wasn’t ready to face her family yet, and she needed to take care of the next step; getting herself back into the Doppelsoldner program.

That presented a challenge because she’d already been tested. While she was certain that the results would be different this time, there was no way to convince the testers, or anyone else for that matter, of what had just happened to her, or how that would affect the results. Which meant she would have to take the decision out of their hands.

…

Waiting for the cover of night, Zero Two spent the last of her money on some food. She’d always had a sweet tooth, and her cravings were worse than usual. Rather than buying a meal, she ended up buying a bunch of candy. Once it was fully dark, she popped the last piece of hard candy into her mouth, and lightly crossed the street to the SDF office, virtually identical to the one in her own city. Hopefully the interior layout was the same as well. The front door was doubtlessly locked, so she walked around to the sides and rear of the building. There was a small loading dock, but the bay door was properly secured. When she got to driver entrance next to it, though, she got lucky. The door appeared closed from a distance, and had swung far enough for the timed alarm to be inactive, but the latch hadn’t engaged with the doorframe, and it opened when she pulled.

Once inside, she was obviously in an unfamiliar place, well away from the paths she’d traveled in the other site, but she followed the wall past the loading dock until she found another interior door. Finding it unlocked, she quickly went through it, and found herself in a corridor. In short order, that led her to an intersection with some hallway labels. Trying to recall the route she’d been led down before without thinking about some of the other events of her last visit to an SDF facility, she set off. Despite a few short missteps, she quickly found herself before an all too familiar door.

This door was locked, with a card reader built into the handle. There was probably a security system as well. Zero Two swallowed the last of the piece of candy, then pulled a chair out of a nearby office. There was an observation window next to the door, but she’d have to act fast once she broke it. Steeling her resolve on final time, she smashed the chair into the window with all her might. Spiderweb cracks formed in the glass, but it held for the moment. With the second strike the chair broke loose from her grasp as it went through the window, and she quickly followed it onto a raised platform in the two-story room.

Searching briefly, Zero Two quickly found what she was looking for. Dashing to a central control area, she pulled on a large lever labeled ‘Lights’, then another indicating that it turned on the simulators. She then moved past several simulators, heading for one set apart from the others. She thought she could faintly hear sirens in the distance as she opened the hatch and slid into the mockup cockpit.

She hesitated slightly when she looked at the controls, forced to relive one of the lowest points in her life as she recalled the startup procedure from memory.

_-Doppelsoldner simulation online-_

_-Emulating pilot-to-pilot synchronization-_

_…_

Trace was in a foul mood as he entered the facility. Apparently there’d been some kind of break-in. He’d been called, right after sitting down for dinner, to come in and check for sabotage or something. The police had only been there for a few minutes longer than he had.

Now he was waiting in the breakroom adjacent to the testing bay. They’d rushed him out here, then told him to sit tight while they finished searching the area. He made himself a cup of coffee, since it looked like it was going to be a long night.

He was finally allowed into the bay, once they’d confirmed that there was only one culprit. From some chatter he’d overheard, it sounded like someone had broken in to take one of the simulators for a joyride. Shaking his head, he headed for the control center to run a diagnostic before he started running physical tests. His terminal was already on, and the screen was showing the readouts from a test. It seemed whoever had broken in had turned on one of the machines, and actually managed to start a test. Trace sighed as he saw that the simulator in question was the Doppelsoldner testbed; of course they’d pick the most expensive one to potentially break.

*Clank*

Trace’s coffee cup slammed into the table so hard that some of the contents sloshed over the side, as he noticed the numbers from the test, his earlier annoyance completely forgotten.

_-Emissive capability: 28%-_

_-Receptive capability: 87%-_

“Holy shit.”

Trace turned from his desk and rushed to the nearest officer.

…

The Delta squad mates gazed around in wonder. The _Bifrost_ was busy at the best of times, but now it looked like an anthill that had been kicked. The cargo bay bustled as crates of supplies where brought onboard.

“Is the carrier getting ready to leave?” Misha asked.

Cein grinned smugly. “Oh, you haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?” Misha narrowed her eyes.

“They’ve found an eighth Doppelsoldner pilot.”

Misha and Cho gasped, and Kato followed up on his brother’s statement, “Now that we’ll be at full complement, they’re ready to take the _Bifrost_ out on its first real deployment. They know the general direction of the VIRM presence, so we’ll be heading that way. Rumor is that we’ll be shipping out in a week and a half. I suspect they’ll tell us when the officially announce the news tomorrow.”

“If they’re announcing the departure tomorrow, then why’d they ask us to come here right now?” Cho asked.

Chad, for once, spoke up, “Presumably they’ll be introducing us to the new pilot. When we came to the bay, I saw that there was a passenger shuttle on the inbound board, among the cargo shuttles. Speaking of which…” he trailed off meaningfully and pointed at something through the viewport.

A much smaller shuttle than the others currently buzzing around was approaching. It had a much more rounded design than the boxy cargo haulers, with viewports dotting the side. Everyone took a moment to gaze at it, but then turned back. Hiro’s gaze lingered longer than everyone else’s, attracting Cho’s attention. “Hiro?” she asked, not even sure how to put her question to words.

Hiro finally turned away as well, “just thought I saw something for a second.”

As the group speculated about the new pilot, the shuttle approached and docked. The airlock hissed as pressure was equalized between the two artificial environments, and then the hatch opened. Septimus called out, and the pilots snapped to attention. For once their budding sense of professionalism held, and they stood rigidly as several uniformed men walked through, escorting someone else, though their eyes all locked onto her. The tightly marching men walked forward, then stopped in front of the line of teenage pilots and turned to face them, and the pilots finally got a good look at the girl who would likely be joining their unit. When she turned to face them, her gaze casually wandered over them, obviously unconcerned with military courtesy.

Her eyes locked onto one of the pilots, and she started forward. One of the men escorting her tried to reach out, but she evaded it with ease.

“Hiro!” _Darling!_ Another voice shouted along with her as she leapt into the air. Cho, the other pilots, Septimus, and her escort could only watch on in stunned silence as Zero Two wrapped her arms around Hiro’s body and mashed her lips against his in a deep kiss.

…

Author’s Notes: Reposted from fanfiction.net


	5. Chapter 5

Hiro reflexively caught the pink-haired meteor that rushed towards him, but was completely unprepared for the kiss she planted on his lips. Two conflicting feelings of alienness and familiarity stunned him, and he made no attempt to stop the kiss as they sunk to the floor. It felt like an eternity before the guards who'd failed to restrain the new girl finally caught up to her and separated them... and Hiro couldn't tell if it had been just the girl who'd clung on when the guards pulled them apart.

Septimus’ scowl could have peeled paint, and his ire was not reserved for just the new girl. The other six pilots had completely forgotten their pretense professionalism in the face of this new development, and were scarcely bothering to whisper as their speculation reached fever pitch. A scathing look from him was, barely, enough to finally get some semblance of order and quiet, and he cleared his throat and spoke.

“I’ve called you hear today to introduce the eighth and final pilot of Delta squadron. This,” his fulminating gaze rested on the girl, who beamed despite being held by the arms, “is Zero Two. As you may have noticed, she is not as well behaved as even you all, and the circumstances under which she was admitted to the Doppelsoldner program are similarly… questionable. However, and whatever concerns I may have, time is of the essence for surveying the VIRM threat, so we will deal with such issues.”

Turning to face the guards, he continued, “Zero Two still needs to be in-processed. Take her to the briefing room, and,” he stopped for a moment, then continued, “and I’ll be along shortly. Dismissed.”

The guards and the new girl began marching away, and after turning to the existing pilots and dismissing them, Septimus followed them.

...

"Jeeze, what was up with that Zero Two girl?" Cho asked, slightly louder than necessary, once the existing pilots were back in the Delta common area, "What kind of person just randomly kisses someone they've never met?" Turning to face Hiro directly, she asked more directly, "You have never met her before, right, Hiro?"

With attention turned toward him, Hiro jerked his hand away from where they'd lingered thoughtfully on his lips. "Huh?"

"I asked if you'd ever met that girl before."

Hiro gazed into the distance again for a few second before responding slowly, "I don't know. I can't remember her or anything, but when..." he trailed off into his thoughts again.

"But what?!" The other chorused along with Cho this time.

Hiro rubbed his temples, as if trying to make his mind work, and sounded more frustrated with himself when he continued, "I dunno. I didn't recognize her, but at the same time I felt something really... familiar." Seeing the befuddled expressions on everyone's faces, he shrugged and added, "I know, it doesn't make much sense to me either."

Before the interrogation could continue, the door to the cafeteria opened and the topic of conversation herself walked in. The soldiers that had escorted her before were visible, but they’d stopped at the door. Zero Two’s grin remained affixed to her face, and while she walked at a slightly more restrained pace, there was still an undeniable bounce in her step as she crossed the room to the table the other pilots were crowded around.

As she approached the table, the squad mates parted. As she reached the table, without missing a beat she turned, planted her behind on the table, and kicked her legs over, neatly crossing the table, and sliding off the other side of the table… and directly into Hiro’s lap.

…

There was nearly an audible click as Hiro’s eyes flashed upon renewed physical contact with Zero Two. He smiled awkwardly at the situation, but made no move to separate himself from her.

Cho sputtered incoherently at the display, but before she could marshal a response, someone else voiced everyone’s thoughts, “Hey, Hiro, I thought you said you didn’t know her?”

Hiro’s eyebrows knitted slightly, but the bemused smile didn’t leave his face. “I didn’t say that, did I? This is Zero Two. She’s been my best friend since we were kids. Haven’t I told you about her?”

Zero Two nodded enthusiastically in assent, but shocked silence fell over the others at this sudden reversal. As the silence grew longer, Hiro’s face began to fall into a confused frown, until at last it was Song who spoke up, quietly saying, “Hiro… you’ve never told us anything about your life before coming to the _Bifrost_.”

After she broke the silence, Cho finally got herself under control, and made an enraged march around the table to forcibly drag the two pilots apart. Focusing her wrath on the new pilot, she asked, “What the hell is going on here? You show up out of nowhere and are climbing all over Hiro. What is he to you?”

Zero Two’s seemingly ever-present smile slipped into a lazy grin as she responded, “didn’t Hiro just tell you? We’ve been friends for a long time. We even made a promise, to meet here on this ship.” At the word promise, Cho’s face froze and she turned to Hiro, who gave a more subdued nod of confirmation of his own. And there was something about the way she said 'Hiro'...

Cho looked completely crestfallen, and sank into a seat at the table behind the one everyone else was clustered around. Zero Two sat back down next to Hiro and they started talking and, while the other pilots interjected a few question, for the most part the two seemed to be in their own little world.

…

The last of the officers filed into the briefing room and sat down. While things were getting hectic as the _Bifrost_ prepared to leave the system, the work was mostly delegated to ratings, and the chaos only made it more important that the officers remained well coordinated. Some officers might question that wisdom, but they were not the ones in charge. While the real briefing wouldn’t start for a few minutes, virtually everyone in the SDF would aim to arrive 15 minutes early to anything, where by habit or by orders from above; for meetings, this was usually used for an unofficial prelude to the real meeting… in other words, scuttlebutt.

One leaned over his chair back to ask to Septimus with a sardonic grin, “So, heard you got some kind of wildcat to fill the last slot in Delta?”

Septimus sighed slightly, willing to be a little more informal among equals, “that’s one way to put it. Seems she broke into a testing facility. They thought some idiot was just joyriding in the testbeds, but she’d hopped in a Doppelsoldner sim, and actually had passable scores.”

“Just passable?” someone else chimed in, “I’d think they’d pass over a likely troublemaker unless they were really good”.

“I think they would have… under normal circumstances,” Septimus replied gravely, “Higher up has been desperate to get this cruise underway for a while, and I think they were willing to take what they could get at this point.”

This got some nods of assent. “That definitely matches my impression, as well”, another affirmed, “the smart money was on them launching within a month, short a Doppelsoldner or not.” The doors opened again and the officers giving the briefing filed in, so she faced the front along with the other officers, but not before a parting remark.

“I certainly don’t envy your job dealing with those kids.”

…

“Told you we were gonna do Doppel training again.” The twins grinned broadly as the pilots filed out of their briefing room and once again headed for Delta Squadron’s hangar.

“We all agreed it was likely,” Cho opined, “I just said it wasn’t certain, since we’d never done it three days in a row before.”

“And we said that having Zero Two on board would make that moot,” they chorused.

Cho tried to respond again, but they’d reached the point where the boys and girls split up, and the twins briefly stuck their tongues out in victory as they walked away before she could argue her point further. Cho also spotted an uncharacteristic wave from Hiro, and nearly froze again when she saw that he was returning Zero Two’s.

…

Entering the girls changing room, Zero Two wasted no time with modesty, stripping down and putting on the pressure suit in full view of the other girls. She also made no attempt at conversation, stepping into the stall for exoskeleton installation and heading out the door just as quickly.

Cho exchanged glances with Misha, then a flash of intuition hit her and she redoubled her own efforts to get changed.

Her intuition was proven correct, as when she arrived at the staging area Zero Two had already locked arms with Hiro, who was currently explaining some minutia of their training regimen to her.

Cho steeled herself and prepared to try to wade in, but Misha stopped her with a slightly sad smile, “you aren't going to win this one, Cho. You've flown with Hiro basically every training period, you haven't really got a claim over the new pilot.”

Cho sighed and slumped slightly, then nodded, “alright. But I've got dibs round two.”

That Cho could still muster some assertiveness seemed to restore Misha's good humor, and she slapped Cho's arm, declaring, “That’s the spirit”, before grabbing that same arm and dragging her towards their own Doppelsoldner.

…

Hiro and Zero Two clambered aboard the as-yet-unnamed number four Doppelsoldner. The slightly longer walk to its bay meant it had been the least used when there were only enough pilots to activate three, but in this case the longer walk had given Hiro more time to explain things to Zero Two, who could not have been a better student; she had hung on every word he said, smiling and nodding along.

The restraints were self-explanatory enough that Hiro only had to double check that Zero Two had gotten them right, which she had, before leading her through the activation sequence. As soon as he put his hand on the control yoke, her hand covered his. An electric feeling ran through his arm, and then the mecha began to wake.

_-Doppelsoldner systems online-_

_-Synchronizing pilot-to-pilot interface-_

Hiro felt as though he was being sucked into a void. There was no fear or feeling of danger, rather it felt warm, safe, _right_. Then the Doppelsoldner's third line shook him out of his reverie.

_-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-_

Hiro hadn't even realized his eyes were closed, but they jerked open and towards the display. He then turned to Zero Two, who also had her eyes closed and was breathing heavily. He shook her shoulder and she, too, opened her eyes. Seeing him looking her way, she smiled and asked, “What's up? I thought we were doing good?”.

Hiro gestured towards the display in front of them. The numbers showed an 84/16 synchronization ratio. “You need to 'push back' when we sync. You were below the 25% threshold, which would knock you out when synching up with the Doppel.”

Zero Two frowned, “that doesn't sound right. That doesn't _feel_ right. It felt like were doing great until the system kicked us out.”

Hiro sighed. “I was worried about this. I have a very high 'emissive' ability. It's why I've been having such a hard time synching with people. I have to pull back hard just to stay under 75%, and that's the opposite of what you're supposed to do to synch up. Did they tell you what your scores were?”

“They said something about a twenty-something and an eighty-something, could that be it?”

This time it was Hiro's turn to grimace, “Yeah. If those are your scores it's going to be nearly impossible for us to synchronize. Maybe we should...”

“No!” Zero Two's hand clamped down on his on the yoke, “no. I can do it with you. We promised. Run it again.”

_-Doppelsoldner systems online-_

_-Synchronizing pilot-to-pilot interface-_

Both Hiro and Zero Two kept their eyes on the panel this time.

Once again the graph quickly headed towards a dangerously lopsided ratio.

Zero Two felt the same warmth grow within her as the first time, but this time she gritted her teeth, gripped Hiro's hand even tighter, and tried to force the comforting warmth _out_ of her body.

Hiro, too, had to fight against his instincts and the familiar cloak that he knew would, for some reason, prevent him from synchronizing.

_-Stabilizing at 74/26-_

They'd done it. Barely. Breaking their eyes away from the screen, they looked at each other. They were both breathing heavily, and a cold sweat had broken out on Zero Two's forehead, but they'd synched successfully.

-Synchronizing pilot-system interface-

-Stabilizing at 68%-

Seeing such a good ratio, Hiro relaxed slightly. He attempted to mirror Zero Two's proud smile at having successfully connected, and connected the Doppelsoldner to the simulation.

They were, after their difficulties, the last to connect, and, taking in their slightly disheveled appearances, Cho asked, “Are you okay? I was _worried_ you might not be able to synch.”

Still wearing a broad smile, Zero Two responded, “My D-Hiro can be a little hard to handle. I can see why you... all have had trouble synching with him. But I'm good to go!”

Before the sniping could begin in earnest, Chad cut in, “Alright, we're slated for a two on two skirmish, now that we have an even number of units again. Me and Song in Unit 1 will pair up with Hiro and Zero Two in Unit 4. Cho, Misha and the twins will be the second team.” And before anyone could comment, he sent a command to initiate, that put the teams on separate comm channels, and put them into a menu to select their preferred weapons.

As usual, Chad selected a sword, little different from the ones used by the Einherjar other than being scaled for a Doppelsoldner, as befitted a former Einherjar pilot, and a shield. Hiro and Zero Two wouldn't know the choices made by the other team until they spotted them in battle, but Hiro could make some predictions. He decided to leave the decision for themselves up to Zero Two, though, “What weapon do you want to use? A great weapon for beginners would be a-”

“A spear!” Zero Two had already selected Hiro's recommendation, a medium-length spear.

…

To keep the pilots on their toes, the start conditions were kept secret during loadout selection. So when the four Doppelsoldners 'spawned' within view of each-other, chaos broke out immediately.

The newest pilot scored the first point by charging instantly, surprising even her copilot. Any concerns over Zero Two's knowledge of piloting were dispelled as Unit 4 leapt forward and threw it's spear, hitting Unit 2, piloted by Cein and Kato, right as the spear reached the end of its tether, before they could raise either of their war-hammers to intercept.

Chad's team was awarded one point, and Unit 2 disappeared and reappeared some distance away; the scenario was designed to end after a certain number of points, to allow for a longer fight. Hiro had been as astonished as everyone else by Zero Two's instant aggression, but as soon as her attack had started, he'd left her to handle the momentary operations of the Doppelsoldner and kept an eye out for their next action. As such, when Unit 3, armed with a large autocannon, opened fire on them, they weren't caught gloating; Hiro had already started their own mech on a twisting evasive maneuver.

Taking stock of the situation while waiting for an opening to appear, Hiro noticed something else concerning; a warning had popped up, stating that they'd exceeded pilot-to-pilot synchronization threshold, but had returned to a stable level before the system shut down for safety.

Hiro turned to check on Zero Two. She had her eyes closed, operating purely on sensory feedback from the piloting system as she reeled their spear back in, but she sensed his concern and gave him another smile and a thumbs up with her free hand. Hiro decided to let it go for the moment, but also to keep an eye on their synch graph to make sure they didn't cause a shutdown.

…

It turned out that concern was well-founded. Throughout the exercise, it felt like they were playing hopscotch with the redline, hitting the limit whenever Zero Two pressed an attack, or Hiro let his attention wander too far from the present. There was a five second grace period before the connection was automatically severed, but by paying attention to it and focusing on leveling their ratio whenever they brushed the limit, they'd managed to avoid spending more than a second or two over the line.

The results, however, spoke for themselves. Unit 4 had cut a swathe through the competition. Zero Two, when leading the dance, was tough to match in an even fight, and with the slight speed advantage from their higher system synchronization and Hiro providing direction, they were taking a lot of fights in which they had an advantage, instead. This didn't mean they were unbeatable; the need to slow down to fix their synchronization meant they were sometimes caught out or forced to fight Doppelsoldners of the other team at once, but the team of Hiro, Zero Two, Chad, and Song won the round handily.

Meeting back up in the waiting room, they took a brief break before pairing off again for a second round of simulations. Cein and Kato immediately approached, making it clear there were no hard feelings as they pressed Hiro and Zero Two for details and advice on how they'd pulled off some of their stunts.

Hiro waved toward Zero Two. “Zero Two's the one you want to ask. She's a natural with a spear.”

As the conversation turned away from him, Cho swooped in stake her claim on Hiro for the next round.

…

_-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-_

_…_

_-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-_

_…_

_-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-_

_…_

Zero Two drummed her fingers on the control yoke, waiting for Hiro to show up on the team monitors. Instead, Septimus came on the frequency, “Hiro and Cho were not able to synch up. I know this isn't the usual procedure, but we're going ask you all to rotate again. At the moment, it's more important to see who Hiro, and Zero Two and the other pilots for that matter, can and cannot synch up with than it is to continue training right now. We need to make permanent pilot assignments soon, and this needs to be sorted out pronto.”

Zero Two was the first pilot out of the mecha.

…

_-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-_

…

With that, Hiro had washed out with every other pilot on the roster. With a sheepish smile, he once again found himself in the cockpit of the fourth Doppelsoldner with Zero Two.

_-Doppelsoldner systems online-_

_-Synchronizing pilot-to-pilot interface-_

_-Stabilizing at 73/27-_

With their prior round of experience, and several rounds of practice with other pilots under Zero Two's belt, they synchronized successfully on their first attempt this time.

No sooner had they popped into the squadron comm circuit than Septimus' face appeared again, “alright, that's enough for today. We've confirmed that Zero Two can still pilot with Hiro. We're going to make them, in Unit 4, our first permanent assignment. You two are free to go. Everyone else is to report to the briefing room where we will discuss the other three pilot pairings.”

…

“So, what do you wanna do?” Zero Two asked, grabbing Hiro's hand as they left the changing rooms alone.

“Uh, I was wondering the same thing. Do you want a tour of the _Bifrost?_ I know the pilots are restricted from a lot of the areas, but the ship is huge and there's plenty to see besides the squadron’s quarters and the launch area.

“That sounds lovely. Lead the way!”

Somehow, despite being the one who knew his way around the ship, it felt like he was still the one following Zero Two.

…

“Okay, that wraps things up for today. Your final assignments are as follows: Chad and Song will pilot Unit 1, Cein and Cho will pilot Unit 2, and Kato and Misha will pilot Unit 3. You are all free for the rest of the day. Dismissed.”

As the pilots filed out of the room, Cho came up to Septimus and asked, “Can you tell me where Hiro is? I saw him headed away from the squadron quarters when we were headed over here.”

“I’m sorry, but when the pilots aren’t under orders, I don’t know any more than you do. You’re free to go anywhere you’d like, as long as you stay out of restricted areas, when off duty, and you aren’t tracked.”

“Thanks anyway,” Cho said over her shoulder as she sped out of the room.

…

Hiro and Zero Two hit their first roadblock midway through their tour.

-Access denied-

Attempting to bring Zero Two to a new section of the ship, her security badge wasn’t working. Hiro had walked through the security screen just fine, but Zero Two had been stopped by it.

Hiro walked back through and said, “Try to walk through again. If that doesn’t work, there’s a panel beside the door so you can swipe your badge as a backup.”

Zero Two shook her head, “no, I think I’m just not allowed in that area. See, my badge has a different border and letter, right? When they brought be aboard they said I’d be ‘under observation for the time being’,” she made an imitation of Septimus’ severe demeanor there.

“Oh… that sucks. I guess we’re stuck, then. Would you like to go do something else, then?”

Zero Two instead grabbed Hiro’s hand and grinned conspiratorially, “nah, I wanna try something first.” She then dragged him along with her and walked into the security barrier again. It beeped once, acknowledging Hiro’s badge, and then they’d both made it through.

Hiro looked back and forth; no security seemed to be coming but he still asked , “are you sure this is okay? Where’d you learn that from?”

“You know, I don’t quite remember where I heard of it. And it’ll be _fine,_ Darling. Let’s keep going!” Zero Two pushed him on ahead toward the next stop on her tour.

…

An NCO entered Septimus' office, in which he was conferring with some of the Doppelsoldner maintenance crew, and stood to attention. Septimus broke off his conversation, returned the salute, and the NCO reported, "Zero Two has exited containment level four, sir".

Septimus nodded and asked a question in reply, "Who’s she with?"

"Hiro".

Another nod. "Thanks for keeping me informed. Let me know if they leave, or attempt to leave, the level three area".

The noncom saluted again and left the room, and Septimus turned back to the maintenance crew. Before he could continue, one of them cleared their throat and asked, "Aren't you going do anything about that, sir?"

Septimus gazed back levelly, but the ghost of a smile tainted his lips, "I take it you don't deal with a great deal of problem children, either ratings or actual children?"

The crew chief, seeing where things were going, grinned and leaned back as Septimus continued to address the subordinate who'd asked the initial question, "We keep the Doppelsoldner pilots under pretty close observation, but we don't want them to know how close it is. So there is some 'padding' built into the restrictions on their movement. If they can leave their assigned area without use coming down on them, they're generally happy enough to have 'beat us', and we also have plenty of space to head them off before they get anywhere actually restricted. Similarly, there are deliberate ‘holes’ in the security of the initial cordon so that they’re less likely to work on figuring out methods to bypass our real security."

"Zero Two is under special restrictions for the time being, which just means there's one extra layer around her. Given that she's with Hiro, who hasn't even bothered to violate his own restrictions, I doubt there's much to worry about while she's with him."

"Anyway, where were we...?”

…

Author's Note: Reposted from fanfiction.net. This concludes the reposted section; all new chapters will be uploaded to both sites simultaneously.


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